The word pagan came from paganus , who mean peasant . Its was a way to significate than christianism was the religion of the elite and paganism the one of the savage worker class.

''Trickster shows us how we trick OURSELVES. Her rampant curiosity backfires, but, then, something NEW is discovered (though usually not what She expected)! This is where creativity comes from—experiment, do something different, maybe even something forbidden, and voila! A breakthrough occurs! Ha! Ha! We are released! The world is created anew! Do something backwards, break your own traditions, the barrier breaks; destroy the world as you know it, let the new in.''Extract of the Dreamflesh article ''Path of The Sacred Clown''

I've many opinions about graffiti. This is interesting because the topic recently was discussed in my figurative drawing class. There was an installation at the School of Art entitled 'graffiti'.

Opinions ran around the classroom, I was fascinated and horrified to discover that so many art students had no idea the origin of, or the meaning of graffiti. They had no clue where it came from, who made the first pieces, and so forth. The opinion I gave (one of the last of the class as I'm older than the teacher - and in this, we shared many viewpoints of the installation) was that the installation was 'empty'. The other word that came to mind was 'co-opted' but would take another class just to orient these young artists on what co-optation actually means. To any idea, not just to art.

I said that early graffiti was 'full'. It radiated in waves of color and distorted letters its' anger, its' rebellion, its' disenfranchise; its' very existence was a continual throbbing thumb of the nose from one class of color to another class- by using color. It was alive as it left the poorest parts of the city and rode into the most privilidged exclusive protected parts of the same city - uninvited, unsquashed, undefeated.

What existed in the installation had as much meaning as baggy hang-ie pants sold at The Gap for Trustifarians to wear because well, all the other trustafarians were wearing them. An imitation without any understanding. A co-opt.

While many of these photos are beautiful in color, execution and composition; some have that same energy. Others in the collection have that original energy.

The first image pales in comparison so no competition there. The 2nd and 3rd images I would consider to be a mural.

Actual Graffiti Art is a certain style that I feel these don't match. They are very nice by themselves, but of a different form.

My 0.02 .

It has it's own style.I feel you would have to make an appointment to view it.I can picture someone paying thousands to hang in their loft apartment penthouse. Graffiti art has always been free to see and feel it's vibe.

Most graffiti isn't art, it's more calligraphy or sign writing done with a spray can, and the line between graffiti and a mural is rather fluid. If the distinction is 'official sanction' then in Northern Ireland similar images painted on similar walls with similar materials are a mural or graffiti depending which street they are on? In a loyalist street it would be a mural and in a republican one it would be graffiti, so the distinction between the two breaks down.

And what of an officially sanctioned piece which has a hidden message that would never be allowed if it was more blatant? A few years back I did an 8 foot by 4 foot 'op art' painting for a drug treatment place, What they didn't know is I included the molecular structure of psylocibin as a major part of the design, that still makes me laugh thinking about getting away with it.

Another thought on the subject is 'Are pavement artists doing horizontal graffiti'?